How does 'win now' affect the Penguins' amateur scouting?

Patrik Allvin, the Penguins’ director of amateur scouting, could be forgiven if he is a little jealous of his peers.

While his counterparts with organizations such as the Anaheim Ducks, New Jersey Devils, New York Rangers and Ottawa Senators are scheduled to have multiple first-round selections in the NHL Draft when it begins Tuesday, Allvin likely will have to wait until Wednesday to make a selection when the Penguins’ first pick is slated to up in the third round at No. 77 overall.

But then again, there are plenty of amateur scouting chiefs who have plenty of reason to be envious of Allvin. He has something most of them don’t have.

A Stanley Cup ring.

In fact, he has three of them.

A member of the Penguins in some capacity since 2006, Allvin has been part of the franchise’s three most recent Stanley Cup championships (2009, ‘16 and ‘17).

Much of that success has been achieved by adopting a “win now” modus operandi. And often, that means dealing away high draft picks for players who can help the NHL roster in the immediate sense.

While that approach has been justified by the team’s on-ice success, the task of finding prospects to keep the organization stocked sufficiently with NHL-caliber players has been a considerable challenge for Allvin and his staff given they have so few picks, particularly with regard to first-rounders, to operate with.

He wouldn’t have it any other way.

“We might not have a first-round pick, and we might be picking later in every round,” Allvin said in a phone interview last week. “It makes it a little bit harder, but I also think it makes us, as a staff, a little bit more competitive. We want to contribute. We realize that we need to work even harder and be able to find those mid-to-late round picks.

”We need to hit on those picks. We might have a little bit of different approach, but I think we’re fortunate to work for an organization like the Penguins that are in a ‘win-now’ mode which is great.”

Barring any further transactions, the Penguins will have only four picks in this week’s draft: third round (No. 77 overall), fourth round (No. 108 overall), fifth round (No. 139 overall) and sixth round (No. 170 overall).

The Penguins did have the 15th overall selection in this year’s draft but dealt it to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Aug. 26 in a deal that brought forward Kasperi Kapanen, the Penguins’ first-round pick in 2014, back to Pittsburgh.

But given how much wheeling and dealing does go on at the draft, Allvin and company will be prepared should general manager Jim Rutherford opt to trade up.

“As always with the Penguins, you never really know what’s going to happen leading all the way up to Tuesday, Wednesday,” said Allvin, who was promoted to his current role in 2017.

“You don’t really know. My message to our staff is that we are always going to be prepared for any scenario. If that means first overall or whatever, we’re always going to be prepared. We’re to have a list in order. We were excited, not just on the 15th overall (selection). But that’s just part of the business with the Penguins. Obviously, I believe we would have gotten a pretty good player at 15, but the player we got (Kapanen) is a good hockey player.”

Under Rutherford and his predecessor, Ray Shero, the Penguins have dealt away six of their past 14 first-round picks. The bulk of that has taken place under Rutherford ever since he took over in 2014.

Since then, the Penguins have used their own first-round pick on only two occasions. In addition to Kapanen, who was traded in 2015 to the Maple Leafs along with their first-round pick in 2016 in exchange for star forward Phil Kessel, the only other player the Penguins have drafted in the first round was forward Sam Poulin in 2019.

And in addition to trading away their first-rounder in this week’s draft, the Penguins dealt away their first-round pick in 2021 as part of February trade with the Minnesota Wild for forward Jason Zucker.

“If we trade those draft picks, we have to make sure we’re doing it for the right reason,” Rutherford said. “It doesn’t always turn out when you trade a draft pick or you don’t get a long-term return.

“Right now, we don’t have our (first-round) pick this year or next year. But we have (Zucker and Kapanen) that are playing in our lineup at a time when we have franchise players in (forwards Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and defenseman Kris Letang).

“At some point in time, the organization is going to have look and say, ‘We’re going to have to stick to a plan a little more for our future.’ But as long as we have the core players we have, it doesn’t make sense for us to wait for (prospects to develop). Now is when we have (the core players), now is the best chance to contend. And that’s why we do it.”

The opportunity to draft Poulin No. 21 overall in 2019 was a rare treat for Allvin.

“The fact that we had it was exciting,” Allvin said. “Jim made it clear that he wanted to keep the pick pretty early. So we had to dig in and we were really excited for the opportunity to get a player like Sam Poulin there. Which was great for the staff. It was a good mindset, a good discussion and a good process leading up to that.”

While Poulin’s skills as a power forward are apparent to the naked eye, he has a baseline set of mental attributes that meet the requirements of any player the Penguins’ amateur scouts deem worthy of drafting.

“Even going back to the previous regime here (under Shero), Sidney Crosby being the leader here and the qualities that he has, they (management) require a special characteristic of the players coming in here,” Allvin said. “The standard, I believe, is higher than on other teams just because of the leadership of Sid. The demanding of the winning and all of those things. Obviously, you need a certain hockey sense and skillset and all of that. But we emphasize a lot on bringing in good people to work with our development guys and (American Hockey League) coaches.”

Allvin cites forward Teddy Blueger, the Penguins’ second-round pick in 2012, as an example.

“I think it took him almost seven years from when he was drafted to going through college to going through the (AHL),” Allvin said. “I think you’ve got to be mentally strong, and you’ve got to have the right mindset to go through that part. In other organizations, it might be easier because you might not be a playoff team, and you might have more room to give the younger kids a chance earlier. We emphasize a lot on not just being a good, talented player but also having the right character as far as what we want to have in our locker room in Pittsburgh.”

Given the uncertain nature of drafting and developing players, as well as the lack of selections the Penguins generally possess, they rarely draft for need and typically always pursue the cliched best player available.

“Obviously, when we pick where we are a little bit further down in the rounds, I think it’s tough to pick on need for the big team,” Allvin said. “Our mindset is just to pick the best player available.”

This past season, two mid-round picks from the Penguins’ 2014 draft class made their NHL debuts: forwards Sam Lafferty (fourth round) and Anthony Angello (fifth round).

Anytime a drafted player reaches the NHL, or “hits,” to use scouting nomenclature, it is a triumph for the scouts who convinced management to select him.

“We’re super excited about that,” Allvin said. “There was somebody that really believed with (Angello’s and Lafferty’s) qualities there. … Scouts are super excited about it. You’re attached to your player. But at the end of the day, we all as an amateur (scouting) staff, we want the team to win another (Stanley Cup title).

“Having some of the players going through our pipeline through Wilkes-Barre and starting to get (NHL) games and contribute, that’s what we take pride in.”

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